This invention is directed to a vehicle carrier and more particularly to a vehicle carrier that can attach, lift and transport a four-wheel automobile from a fixed position completely immobile without manual assistance by the carrier operator.
Tow trucks or towing vehicles have been around for a long time and probably have existed since the invention of the automobile. In the early days of the automobile, due to their unreliability of operation for whatever reason requiring mechanic's assistance, being wrecked and inoperable required towing to the nearest repair garage. The first tow trucks as such were probably draft horses or the like. The use of horses was followed by automobiles using chains and the like to tow disabled automobiles. Later trucks with lift booms were used. Little effort was made to prevent damage to the vehicle being towed. In modern times, impounding of automobiles by the legal establishment and repossessing of automobiles required even additional requirement for tow trucks.
Modern day tow trucks are designed for ease of operation, safety and to prevention of damage to the vehicle being towed. Some of these modern tow trucks include the following:
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,279 Inventor Richard W Hill teaches a boom accessory for a flat bed tow truck that includes a frame that is lockable onto a power underlift hoist of a truck by retraction of a ram of the hoist against the truck frame. The frame includes a base for engagement on the ram, an upwardly and rearwardly extending boom member, and optionally, a rearward facing trailer hitch socket for permitting trailers to be towed with the boom accessory in place. A sleeve assembly is pivotally mountable atop the boom member for engaging a hook cable extending from a winch unit of the truck, the accessory extending the utility of the tow truck by enabling retrieval of disabled vehicles without significant modification of the truck. A method for hoisting a load by the flatbed tow truck includes the steps of providing the boom accessory, extending the ram, resting the base on the ram, retracting the ram for clamping the base between the head portion of the ram and the leg member, threading the cable over the sheave, connecting the cable to the load and activating the winch for moving and hoisting the load, the cable being movably supported by the sheave. All of the past and present tow trucks require that considerable manual labor to prepare the disabled vehicle for towing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,279 Inventor Richard W Hill teaches a boom accessory for a flat bed tow truck that includes a frame that is lockable onto a power underlift hoist of a truck by retraction of a ram of the hoist against the truck frame. The frame includes a base for engagement on the ram, an upwardly and rearwardly extending boom member, and optionally, a rearward facing trailer hitch socket for permitting trailers to be towed with the boom accessory in place. A sleeve assembly is pivotally mountable atop the boom member for engaging a hook cable extending from a winch unit of the truck, the accessory extending the utility of the tow truck by enabling retrieval of disabled vehicles without significant modification of the truck. A method for hoisting a load by the flatbed tow truck includes the steps of providing the boom accessory, extending the ram, resting the base on the ram, retracting the ram for clamping the base between the head portion of the ram and the leg member, threading the cable over the sheave, connecting the cable to the load and activating the winch for moving and hoisting the load, the cable being movably supported by the sheave. The use of this device is very labor intensive.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,797,057; 4,678,392 and 5,662,453 teach additional versions of wheel lifts for a tow truck. These patents like Hill above require considerable manual labor from the tow truck operator for their manipulation.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,662,453; 5,133,633 and 4,929,142 teach various renditions of vehicle carriers with tilt beds that tilt downward in the rear of the carrier to the same elevation as the vehicle to be transported and the vehicle a cable is attached by the vehicle carrier operator and the vehicle to be transported is pulled upon the tilted bed.